Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Sunday confirmed he will vote against outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo's nomination to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.
"We have a president who is anti-diplomacy. And I worry that Mike Pompeo has shown the same tendency to oppose diplomacy," Kaine said in a CBS interview. "I don't want a secretary of state who is going to exacerbate [President Trump's] tendencies," he continued. "We need a secretary of state who's going to stand up for strong diplomacy, a

Beyoncé became the first black woman to headline the Coachella music festival in California on Saturday, performing with guest appearances from her husband, Jay Z, her sister, Solange Knowles, and a reunited Destiny's Child.
The performance included a brass band, which Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who represents Beyoncé's home district of Houston, said was "giving us HBCU vibes," using the abbreviation for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Beyoncé's set fe

The United States' "work in Syria is not done," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Fox News Sunday. "Were not going to leave until we know we have accomplished [U.S. goals]," she continued. "Be very clear, if we leave — when we leave — it will be because we know that everything is moving forward."
Haley listed three goals to be achieved in Syria: no use of chemical weapons in a manner that could harm U.S. interests, complete defeat of the Islamic State, and li

In To Change the Church, his new book, Ross Douthat argues that Pope Francis' reform efforts threaten to destroy Catholic unity and weaken the West. Below, the New York Times columnist names six of his favorite books on religion.
American Grace by Robert Putnam and David Campbell (Simon & Schuster, $20).
In their deeply researched sociological portrait of the role religious practice and community plays in American life, Putnam and Campbell put particular focus on major changes since the 1960s.

Philadelphia police are under national scrutiny after arresting two black men who were waiting in a Starbucks for a business meeting.
The men reportedly had not yet purchased drinks when they asked to use the bathroom. Store employees said no, according to policy for non-customers, and told them to leave the store. When they did not leave, a Starbucks employee called the police. At least six officers arrested the men for "defiant trespassing" while other patrons protested that they'd done nothi

A spring storm system has hit much of the cental United States with extreme weather this weekend, bringing blizzard conditions in the upper Midwest and tornadoes, heavy rain, and hail further south. At least three people have been killed in connection to the storm, and hundreds of flights have been grounded in Minneapolis-Saint Paul thanks to about a foot of snow.
#WinterStormXanto brought #Minneapolis its snowiest April day on record Saturday, with 11.1 inches of snow. It's also now the city'

Angry over new revelations from the former FBI director and his forthcoming book, President Trump again attacked James Comey in a series of tweets Sunday morning:
Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018
The...

How did a former KGB agent rise to become one of Russia's longest-serving ruler since Stalin? Here's everything you need to know:
Where did Putin grow up? He was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in 1952. The city was still recovering from the German siege during World War II, in which Putin's older brother died and his mother nearly starved to death. Post-siege Leningrad was, in the words of Russian journalist Masha Gessen, "a mean, hungry, impoverished place that bred mean, hungry, feroc

Actors Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump's embattled personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a Meet the Parents-style interrogation.
After a chat with Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) and Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), the hapless Cohen meets Mueller for a surprise lie detector test. "I'll start with some easy ones," Mueller begins. "How'd you like that pee-pee tape?"
As the int

1. The Trump administration is prepared to launch further strikes on Syria if chemical weapons are used again, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Saturday at a Security Council meeting. "The time for talk ended last night," she announced. "The United States is locked and loaded. When our president draws a red line, our president enforces a red line." President Trump ordered the attack Friday in response to what Washington believes was chemical weapons use by Syrian President

Former FBI Director James Comey said his assumption that then-candidate Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election played a role in his decision-making about investigating the private email server she used as secretary of state. Clinton has blamed Comey for her loss.
"Wasn't the decision to reveal [further investigation to Congress shortly before the election] influenced by your assumption that Hillary Clinton was going to win, and your concern that, she wins, this comes out several weeks late

There "has been a 2,000 percent increase in Russian trolls in the past 24 hours," chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said Saturday, accusing Moscow of ramping up a "disinformation campaign" against the U.S.-led strikes on Syria ordered by President Trump Friday night. She did not detail how the Defense Department calculated that number, but told assembled reporters the Pentagon would supply them with "the facts, moving forward."
Like President Trump, White spoke of the strikes as an unquali

Some congressional Democrats and Republicans alike slammed President Trump for ordering military strikes on Syria without seeking congressional authorization:
The Constitution gives Congress the power to authorize military action. If @realDonaldTrump wants to expand American military involvement in Syria's civil war, he must seek approval from Congress - & provide a comprehensive strategy with clear goals & a plan to achieve them.(2/2)
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 14, 2018
Sen. T...

President Trump celebrated on Twitter Saturday morning following Friday night's U.S.-led strikes on Syrian regime targets, his words echoing former President George W. Bush's now infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech about Iraq:
A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018
So proud of our g...

"We can all see that a Russia disinformation campaign is in full-force this morning, but Russia's desperate attempts at deflection cannot change the facts," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Saturday at a Security Council meeting following U.S.-led strikes on Syria. President Trump ordered the attack Friday in response to what Washington believes was chemical weapons use by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week.
Haley argued "there is clear information demonstrating" t

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:
No more signing for the bill?"Pen and paper may no longer be the final course in your dining experience," said Annie Nova at CNBC. Beginning this month, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and Visa will stop requiring most merchants — even restaurants — to verify customer signatures. The advent of chip technology has already seen many stores do away with paper receipts. But restaurants have persis...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday joined British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron in endorsing the overnight U.S.-led strikes on Syria. Merkel said the attack was "necessary and appropriate, to ensure the effectiveness of the international ban of chemical weapons use and to warn the Syrian regime of further attempts."
Another strike could happen, said the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, if the "red line is crossed again" with another chemica

1. The U.S. launched a series of strikes in Syria targeting chemical weapons facilities, President Trump announced Friday night. The military attack was ordered in coordination with France and the U.K. in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week. The Syrian government is accused of deploying chemical weapons against civilians in eastern Ghouta. "The purpose of our action tonight is to establish a strong deterrent" against the use of c

Moscow on Saturday condemned Friday night's U.S. strikes on Bashar al-Assad regime targets in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. is "deepening a humanitarian catastrophe," while a Russian embassy statement called the attack "treacherous and insane" and a "clear and present danger to world peace" which violates international law.
Fellow Syrian ally Iran also slammed the strikes, labeling them "aggression" and "a flagrant violation of international laws and a disregard for Syri

The Republican National Committee (RNC) deputy finance chair, Elliott Broidy, resigned from his position Friday after news broke that he hired President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to negotiate a settlement with a Playboy model in 2016.
"I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate," Broidy said in a statement. "At the end of our relationship, this woman shared with me that she was pregnant. She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregna

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web:
A year ago, Tesla looked "destined to revolutionize the auto industry," said Neal Boudette at The New York Times. The Silicon Valley automaker's electric Model S sedan was the darling of luxury-car buyers, and its "affordable" Model 3 was set to bring "emission-free driving to the masses." Its self-driving Autopilot technology appeared more advanced than the competition's. And CEO Elon Musk was touted as a

Renowned director Milos Forman died early Saturday morning at a hospital near his Connecticut home, his family announced through his agent. He was 86. Known for films including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, and Man on the Moon, Forman won two Oscars in the best director category and was nominated for a third.
Milos Forman was our friend and our teacher. He was a master filmmaker - no one better at capturing small unrepeatable moments of human behavior. We made two movies together a

President Trump is not known for holding back on Twitter — and a Friday tweet showed just how willing he is to express his emotions via smartphone.
Trump took to his favorite social media platform to respond to a report from the Justice Department regarding former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The report accused McCabe, who was fired in March, of misleading investigators and providing information to the press without authorization, The New York Times reports.
"McCabe was totally controll...

President Trump's growing frustration with the Justice Department has led Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, to believe that he will be fired soon.
Rosenstein, who has faced public criticism from Trump this week via Twitter, is prepared to be fired, sources told NBC News, and has reportedly accepted this eventuality. He has even taken to quoting Martin Luther: "Here I stand," he has reportedly said in private conversations, invoking the German monk's famous refrain, "Here I stand, I c

The 21st century has put to rest Marx's dictum that history repeats itself first as tragedy then as farce. It was a farce when former FBI Director James Comey went in the span of some six months from being regarded as a selfless public servant who refused to cave to right-wing pressure and charge Hillary Clinton over her damned emails to being excoriated as a crypto-fascist spook who swung the election to Donald Trump to becoming the unofficial leader of the #Resistance after the president fire

Dancing with the Stars is looking more like Skating, Snowboarding, and Sliding with the Olympians this season.
Figure skating sweetheart Adam Rippon and the controversial Tonya Harding will join the show's athlete-packed edition premiering on April 30, the show revealed Friday in announcing its latest round of casting.
Besides Rippon, three other 2018 Winter Olympic medalists — snowboarder Jamie Anderson, luger Chris Mazdzer, and skater Mirai Nagasu — will slide onto the stage.
There's also...

James Comey and Robert Mueller have their fair share of haters, but they can count this verbose congressman on their side.
Things started calmly as Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) explained to CNN on Friday why Republicans are trying to discredit Mueller, the special counsel, and Comey, the former FBI director.
"When the facts are ugly for your man, you attack the character and personality of the person who is pushing those facts," he said, referring to some Republicans' desire to protect President Tr

President Trump has personally assured Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R) that he will not infringe upon states' rights to legalize marijuana, The Washington Post reports.
Gardner had announced his intention to block all Justice Department nominees after Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo in January suggesting a crackdown on states where the drug is legal, such as Colorado. "Late Wednesday, I received a commitment from the president that the Department of Justice's rescission of the Cole

On Friday, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace wagged a finger at former FBI Director James Comey over some observations about President Trump in Comey's new book that he found to be "bitchy." Wallace has not yet read Comey's forthcoming book, A Higher Loyalty, but he reported that the excerpts that have been released have Washington, D.C., buzzing.
Wallace, though, didn't approve. "Comey goes out of his way to say the president isn't as tall as he thought he was, he checked out the size of his hands

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates said Friday that despite reports that talks between President Trump's legal team and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office have deteriorated in the wake of the FBI raid of Michael Cohen's office earlier this week, it is still imperative that the president sit for questioning. "I don't understand how he would have the moral authority to lead this country if he didn't answer those questions," she said at the Women in the World conference in New York Ci

It was only a matter of time before President Donald "Punch Back" Trump responded to scathing new excerpts of former FBI Director James Comey's forthcoming book. Sure enough, early Friday morning Trump tweeted: "James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR" — but he didn't stop there:
James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be pro...

The Department of Justice cannot dole out federal funding based on whether jurisdictions follow sanctuary city policies, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The city of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he announced a crackdown on sanctuary laws, which allow local law enforcement to decline to work with federal immigration agencies. The city claimed that Sessions was abusing his power by basing funding decisions on whether local agencies cooperated with deman

In October, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposed at least doubling the entrance fee at 17 heavily visited national parks, to $70 per car from the typical $30, and $30 for bikes or pedestrians from $15. On Thursday, the National Park Service said that after reviewing public comment, it has decided to raise fees by an average of $5 across all 117 national parks that charge entrance fees. "An investment in our parks is an investment in America," Zinke said in a statement. "I want to thank the Am

Russia claimed Friday that a suspected chemical attack in Syria last weekend was "staged" by the U.K.
The U.S. has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of directing the use of chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta. The attack reportedly killed dozens of civilians in an area that has been targeted by the Syrian government because of the presence of rebel groups. Blood and urine samples taken from the area showed evidence that the incident was in fact a chemical attack, NBC News reports.
But the

The U.S. launched a series of strikes in Syria, targeting chemical weapons facilities and a research center using both aircrafts and ships, President Trump announced Friday night.
The military attack was ordered in coordination with France and the U.K., in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week. The Syrian government is accused of deploying chemical weapons against civilians in eastern Ghouta, which reportedly killed dozens of peop

Oklahoma teachers will likely return to the classroom Friday after the state's largest teachers' union, the Oklahoma Education Association, called off a nine-day-old strike on Thursday, saying the walkout had gone as far as it could. Union president Alicia Priest called the strike "a victory for teachers," even though it fell short of their goals, adding that "we got here by electing the wrong people to office" and "we have the opportunity to make our voices heard at the ballot box." In Arizona

The Larry Nassar scandal continues to disgust.
The former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University was sentenced in February to 40 to 125 years in prison for sexual abuse of patients over decades. But Kaylee Lorincz, an 18-year-old survivor who testified during Nassar's sentencing, revealed Friday that MSU's interim president secretly offered her a settlement in the case, The Associated Press reported.
Lorincz says she was signing up to speak at Friday's board of trustees meeting

Right before Stephen Colbert tape his Late Show monologue on Thursday, the first excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey's new book started leaking, and one passage caught Colbert's eye — Comey's claim that President Trump was obsessed with the salacious parts of the Russia dossier, worried that there was "even a 1 percent chance" Melania Trump might believe the rumors. "Yes, it would bother him, because she'd be off by about 99 percent," Colbert joked. "Oh, come on! Sanctimonious m

President Trump was reportedly so enraged by an FBI raid of his personal attorney's office and hotel that he is now on the brink of firing Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general he appointed, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
"It's a matter of when, not if," an anonymous person who has been in talks with Trump this week told The Wall Street Journal.
Investigators seized files from Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime attorney, on Monday. The raid was conducted by Manhattan law enforcem

1. President Trump said in a meeting with farm state lawmakers and governors on Thursday that he had told his aides to "take another look" at getting the U.S. back into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact he dumped last year shortly after taking office. Getting back into the 11-nation free trade deal would mark a sharp reversal of his previous position. Trump has slammed the deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, as a terrible arrangement for the U.S. Lawmakers from both parties h

Misunderstood conspiracy-monger Alex Jones was in Washington, D.C., this week to talk about the defamation lawsuits piling up against him and his organization, InfoWars, and The Opposition sent Kobi Libii down to cover the event. Libii was not allowed into Jones' press conference, and that didn't strike him as the kind of thing the real Alex Jones would do to a fellow "citizen journalist." "And that's when I realized what the actual Alex Jones would think," Libii said. "Watching the livestream

Basing a movie on a game makes a certain amount of sense. Be it board, video, or party, and old game doesn't involve a beloved story to be painstakingly adapted; in some cases, a game provides little more than a premise. Really, they're marketing hooks sharpened by a vaguely comforting sense of nostalgia, which is all that some studios want out of "intellectual property" anyway.
This weekend brings a pair of additions to Game Cinema: Rampage, adapted from the old arcade game about monsters bust

This week's question: With U.S.-Russia tensions at a high, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. has complained that no one in Washington — including House majority and minority leaders and Vice President Mike Pence — is willing to meet and talk with him. If Ambassador Anatoly Antonov were to write a memoir about his lonely life in D.C., what title could he give it?
Click here to see the results of last week's contest: Old fight
How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.co...

Paul Ryan has endorsed Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to take over his role as speaker of the House.
"I fully anticipate handing the gavel over to the next speaker of the House after this term, and I think Kevin is the right guy to step up," Ryan said on a Meet the Press exclusive Friday morning.
Ryan said members of Republican leadership, including Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — largely considered to be McCarthy's top competition for the job — agree with his decision. Rep...

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's profligate spending of taxpayer money isn't new — he reportedly jacked up spending when he was Oklahoma attorney general, too — but EPA officials have justified most of it by citing apparently very overblown concerns about Pruitt's safety. And Pruitt's main enabler, Politico says, is the head of his 19-person 24/7 security detail, Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta.
Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent, encouraged or insisted that Pruitt (and himself) fly first cla...

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but missiles can conveniently distract from a story you don't want out there. That, at least, is the apparent thinking of Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt, who just happened to wonder aloud Friday if bombing Syria "would be a bigger story than [James] Comey's book that is released on Tuesday."
The Republican National Committee has been fighting to discredit "Lyin' Comey" ahead of the release of A Higher Loyalty, the former FBI director's account of his

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad apparently launched another chemical attack recently, and President Trump threatened to launch missiles at something (he wasn't clear what) in response. Russia retaliated by threatening to shoot down any missiles that were launched, and now we're in another good old-fashioned standoff with a nuclear superpower, with bloodthirsty maniac John Bolton at the president's side.
Here's an idea. Let's just stop all bombing, just to see how it works out. Perhaps we might

The fabled "pee tape" is back. Reviews of former FBI Director James Comey's book, A Higher Loyalty, are already making the rounds and it's hard not to focus on his blow-by-blow account of the time he told then-President-elect Donald Trump about the possible existence of a Russian blackmail video that supposedly featured Trump hiring prostitutes to urinate on a bed that President Obama once slept on. According to Comey, Trump became obsessed with the rumor.
Yet as salacious as these details are,

An asparagus farm in Brandenburg, Germany. | (EPA-EFE/HAYOUNG JEON)
Runners pass by the Obelisk on Place de la Concorde during the Paris Marathon. | (EPA-EFE/IAN LANGSDON)
An acrobat is launched in the air in front of the London Eye. | (Rick Findler/REX/Shutterstock)
Wildcard Jack Robinson competes in the Margaret River Pro in western Australia. | (Kelly Cestari/WSL/REX/Shutterstock)
Padel player Franco Stupaczuk reacts during the men's World Padel Tour in Alicante, Spain. | (EPA-EFE/Ma

Usually, 14-year-old Brennan Walker takes the bus to his high school in Rochester Hills, Michigan. But he missed the bus Thursday morning, so he decided to walk.
But Walker got lost on the way. So the black teenager knocked on a door for directions — and got shot at.
The woman who answered the door told 911 operators that a black male was trying to break into her home, BuzzFeed News reported. She said her husband chased Walker through the yard, and the county sheriff's office confirmed the ma...

After spending several months negotiating with President Trump's legal team over the terms of an interview with the president, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office is moving forward on the presumption that the meeting will most likely not take place, several people familiar with the matter told NBC News on Thursday.
One person said talks collapsed this week after FBI agents raided the office, home, and hotel room of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Before that, the teams were finalizi

Former FBI Director James Comey's new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership won't be out until next week, but it's already number one on Amazon, tidbits from leaked copies are making the rounds, and Comey is planning a round of high-profile promotional media appearances. This is no doubt driving President Trump around the bend, which helps explain why the White House, the Republican Party, and Trump's allies in the conservative media have begun a highly organized campaign to discr

On Thursday we learned that the National Enquirer paid President Trump's former doorman $30,000 during the election for his tale about an alleged love child Trump had with his housekeeper, then killed the story. "Trump might have a secret kid?" Trevor Noah asked on Thursday's Daily Show. "I bet everyone who doesn't know their father right now is panicking. They're phoning their moms, like: 'Tell me it wasn't him, mom, tell me it wasn't him! Tell me it was a crackhead.'"
"Everyone in this story

On Thursday night, President Trump signed an executive order calling for an inspection of the United States Postal Service's pricing, policies, and workforce costs.
A task force, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin or his designee, will review the U.S. Postal Service's business practices, Bloomberg reports. Over the last 10 years, with more customers paying their bills online and sending emails rather than letters, and with federally mandated pension payments, the Postal Service has report

We can all sense it: the hollowing out of the center, the ever-increasing polarization of our public life. Republicans shift further right while Democrats move further left, leaving much less overlap between the parties (in Congress and in public opinion) than there was from the mid-20th-century heyday of the so-called "vital center" on down through the first decade of the 21st.
Those of us who favor a politics of consensus, conciliation, and the common good are distressed by the trend. But too

The Republican National Committee is going all-out to try to discredit former FBI Director James Comey, whose new book, A Higher Loyalty, is already making waves. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday finds President Trump and his allies have their work cut out for them. By a 48 percent to 32 percent margin, Americans say Comey is more believable than Trump, and by a similar 47-33 percent margin, they disapprove of Trump's decision to fire Comey — even though Americans don't view C...

"April is the cruellest month," wrote T.S. Eliot in his poem "The Waste Land," and I'm inclined to agree with him. Particularly this April, the fourth month of 2018, a year that's already been kind of a doozy (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just read the news — or actually maybe don't). It seems like every dash of something good, every positive step we take — an increased infusion of sun biting into the darkness that's held us for so long — is followed by yet another nor'easter...

The Justice Department has accused former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe of misleading investigators and providing information to the press without authorization. In a report delivered to Congress on Friday, the DOJ claimed that McCabe had violated multiple department policies, which eventually led to his firing in March just days before he was set to retire and receive a pension.
More details about McCabe's alleged transgressions were revealed in the report, The New York Times explains. The

"It's an exhausting time to be alive," Stephen Colbert sighed on Thursday's Late Show. "Between talking about [President] Trump, drinking, curling up in the bathtub, and being asked to leave Home Depot, I barely have time to talk about one of Trump's most corrupt underlings," Scott Pruitt. He ran through some of the scandals besetting the EPA chief, ending with a former coworker who said Pruitt "wanted to be treated like he was the president." "Well, now he's under investigation, so congratulat

After considering it for several months, President Trump is poised to pardon Scooter Libby, the onetime chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney, several people familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Libby was convicted in 2007 of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice in connection with the leaking of a covert CIA operative's identity, and then-President George W. Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence but did not pardon him. Libby has since had his law license and voting

1. Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Trump last year, brutally criticizes Trump in his new book, A Higher Loyalty, likening him to a "mob boss" who lies "about all things, large and small." In the book, due to be released next week, Comey writes that Trump once asked him to investigate the dossier compiled by ex-spy Christopher Steele, which contains unconfirmed claims that Moscow has video of Trump and Russian prostitutes. Comey said Trump explained that it bothered hi

The future of transportation is the bicycle. At least, Uber seems to think so.
Earlier this week, the ridesharing app solidified a $200 million purchase of Jump, a dockless e-bike service. The humble bicycle has somehow become hot.
But like most things Uber does, there is an obvious reason for the move, and another, more subtle one. As the company expands its range of offerings, from the now-familiar ride-hailing app to freight, self-driving cars, and now e-bikes, it's increasingly clear that i

President Trump reportedly called his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, while their lawyers attempted to prevent the Justice Department from reading documents that were seized in an FBI raid of Cohen's hotel and office.
Trump and Cohen's attorneys went to court Friday to try and block officials from accessing information that they claimed was protected by attorney-client privilege, The New York Times reports. Trump reportedly phoned Cohen to "check in," the Times reports. It's not clear what th

Tucker Speckman was hoping his principal would see him on television, in the stands of Wrigley Field for the Chicago Cubs home opener on Tuesday, but Patrick Versluis saw him in person because he was playing hooky, too.
We got you. pic.twitter.com/9eewGzMIFJ
— MLB (@MLB) April 10, 2018
Speckman, a fourth-grader at Wells Elementary School, made a sign that read, "Skipping School. Shh! Don't tell Principal Versluis." He didn't make it on television — although Major League Baseball did tweet...

On Thursday, a federal judge in Arizona unsealed an April 5 plea agreement in which Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer admits to charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering, and Ferrer also pleaded guilty to California state charges of conspiracy and money laundering. As part of the plea deals, Ferrer agreed to testify against former colleagues at Backpage, which the FBI seized and shut down on April 6, calling it a lucrative nationwide "online brothel." Also Thursday, Texas Attorney Ge

Former FBI Director James Comey writes in his forthcoming book A Higher Loyalty that President Trump is "untethered to the truth" and built a "cocoon of alternative reality that he was busily wrapping around all of us."
Comey said when he first met Trump, he had "flashbacks" to when he prosecuted members of the Mob, and Trump lies about "all things, large and small." Comey also writes that Trump is fixated on the dossier compiled by former intelligence officer Christopher Steele, which includes

Americans are increasingly less likely to know what Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorating, a troubling study published Thursday found.
The research, conducted by Jewish organization Claims Conference, found that the Holocaust is quickly fading from America's collective memory. The study found that 11 percent of U.S. adults had never heard of, or weren't sure if they had heard of, the Holocaust. Additionally, 22 percent of millennials — aged 18 to 34 — were in the dark about the event, ...

Former FBI Director James Comey recalls in his new book A Higher Loyalty the moment he knew Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn't have his back.
During a meeting on Feb. 14, 2017, in the Oval Office, President Trump asked Sessions to leave so he could talk to Comey about the FBI's investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Comey, who shared details of the conversation last year in front of the Senate, said Trump told him Flynn is "a good guy," adding, "I hope you can let t

On January 23, 2017, the third day of his presidency, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Speaking to an audience of cheering union leaders, the president heaped scorn on "ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country." A few days later in a rally on Capitol Hill Bernie Sanders and Rosa DeLauro, two of our greatest living public servants, celebrated the move as a victory for American workers.
Trump's first achievement was also in a r

The speaker doth protest too much, sources think — at least when comes to his reasons for quitting.
Despite House Speaker Paul Ryan's repeated insistence that it wasn't his disagreements with President Trump that pushed him to decide not to run for re-election this year, Politico reports that he's been telling his friends otherwise.
Ryan announced Wednesday that he plans to leave Congress when his term ends this year, saying at a press conference that he wants to spend more time with his fami...

For just 500,000 votes, Heinz will actively ruin America's condiment aisles.
The ketchup behemoth unveiled a ketchup-mayonnaise blend called "Mayochup" on Wednesday, and your misguided vote could make it a reality.
Want #mayochup in stores? 500,000 votes for "yes" and we'll release it to you saucy Americans.
— Heinz Ketchup (@HeinzKetchup_US) April 11, 2018
Mayochup is already available in some Middle East countries, per USA Today, and Americans were quick to point out that "fry sauce...

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reportedly wants to mint "challenge coins" for his department but has insisted that they be twice as large as his predecessor's coins and that they prominently display symbols relevant to him personally, rather than something more traditional like the EPA's official seal, The New York Times reports.
Challenge coins are military in origin, having once been used as a means of proving one's allegiance if questioned. Now they are used for everything from recognizing e

President Trump told a group of Republican senators Thursday that he was having U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow take "another look at" the Trans-Pacific Partnership, The Washington Examiner reports based on comments made by Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse (R), who was in the room.
On Trump's first full weekday in office in January 2017, he signed an executive action to withdraw from the negotiating process of the 12-nation trade deal he'd

1. When Daisy Anguiano Miranda walked into the lobby of Nebraska Medicine in Omaha and saw hundreds of birthday cards and gifts, she couldn't believe what was in front of her. Strangers from across the U.S. sent Anguiano Miranda presents as part of a campaign called "Daisies for Daisy," started by Ashli Brehm. Brehm, a breast cancer survivor, met Anguiano Miranda during treatment, and when she discovered the child had been diagnosed for the second time with a rare bone cancer, she wanted to do s

The National Enquirer paid a former doorman of one of President Trump's New York City buildings $30,000 in 2015 for rights to a rumor he'd heard about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate child in the 1980s with one of his employees, then killed the story, The Associated Press and The New Yorker report. The doorman, Dino Sajudin, apparently faced a $1 million penalty if he discussed the story with anyone else.
Sajudin went as far as to take a lie-detector test to prove to American Media In

Paul Ryan might want to take a critical eye to some of his recent photos.
Ryan, the House speaker, appeared on CBS This Morning on Thursday to discuss his recently-announced retirement plans with host Gayle King. During the interview, Ryan said that even as he would be stepping away from formal Republican politics, he'd still advocate for expanding the GOP's appeal, including pushing for increased diversity in the party. But Ryan didn't bring up the Trump administration's minority problem all o

Broad City is back, baby. The Comedy Central hit will return for its fifth and final season in 2019, per a press release.
But fret not: Even when the shenanigans stop, it won't be the last we see of the show's creators/stars/showrunners Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson.
Comedy Central has claimed the first look at any TV content the pair create or develop, both together or separately. That applies to three projects already in the works: Mall Town USA, Platinum Status, and Young Professionals.
Gla

The cast of Disney's live-action Mulan is almost ready to get down to business.
In the past 24 hours, an actor from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and two big-name Chinese stars have joined the cast.
Donnie Yen, a martial arts star who played the blind monk Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One, will play Commander Tung, Deadline first reported. Commander Tung, who acts as a mentor to Mulan, is a role created specifically for the live-action film that wasn't in the original version.
Chinese superstars Gong L

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he isn't seeking re-election, and Stephen Colbert had some theories. "No one with this kind of power just walks away, that's just not done," he said on Wednesday's Late Show. "The man is third in line for the presidency — though, maybe he's leaving because he just figured that out. 'Wait, the FBI just raided Michael Cohen's office? Not it! Not it!'"
"There's a lot of speculation that Ryan is jumping ship before a big Democratic wave sweeps the midter

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has been heavily criticized for enjoying luxury amenities on taxpayer dollars, went as far as to request to fly on an airline that wasn't on the government's approved list so he could rack up more frequent flier miles, Democrats claim in a new letter published Thursday.
The letter was written based on conversations with the former EPA deputy chief of staff, Kevin Chmielewski. Chmielewski was fired after he denied one of Pruitt's st

President Trump was taking his response to the Syria chemical weapons attack seriously, focusing on the issue and meeting regularly with his national security team, so aides were shocked when he tweeted Wednesday morning that Russia needed to "get ready" for U.S. missiles to hit Syria, several officials told The Washington Post.
On Saturday, a suspected gas attack killed dozens of people in a rebel-held town outside Damascus, and after days of weighing his options carefully, Trump tweeted: "Ru

President Trump's Thursday morning tweets included a thank you note to California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for deploying the National Guard to the Mexican border (where they will not work to detain immigrants or refugees) and good luck wishes to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who faces a tough confirmation hearing to be secretary of state Thursday morning. But he also seemed determined to set the record straight, first on a New York Times report that he moved to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in De

President Trump began Wednesday by threatening Russia with missiles aimed at Syria. "I feel like we joked about this," Trevor Noah said on Wednesday's Daily Show. "When Trump got elected, we were, like, 'He's gonna start a war on Twitter, hahahaha,' and then before he got elected, we were, like, 'He's gonna become president, hahahaha.' It turns out every joke about Trump is just a headline that hasn't happened yet." And that was just the start to a crazy news day.
"Normally, John Boehner pushin

The Republican National Committee has built a website designed to discredit former FBI Director James Comey. The site is reportedly one part of a larger effort by President Trump's allies to attack Comey ahead of his book launch next week.
The website, branded "Lyin' Comey," revives several old quotes from Democrats criticizing Comey, whom Trump fired from the FBI last year. The former FBI director's book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, will share his side of the story about his

Former White House strategist Stephen Bannon has been trying to get President Trump's attention with his plan to neuter Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, The Washington Post reports, and since he's on the outs with Trump, Bannon "has huddled in recent days — at his Capitol Hill townhouse, a Washington hotel, and over the phone — with a handful of White House aides, GOP lawmakers, and conservative media figures who speak frequently with Trump." The first step of his plan: Fire ...

No, Stephen Bannon didn't enroll in law school after being ousted from the White House last summer, but he is providing free legal advice to anyone in President Trump's orbit who will listen.
Trump's former chief strategist is still in contact with White House aides, and he wants them to pass along to Trump his plan to stop the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, several people with knowledge of the discussions told The Washington Post. Step one is to fire Deputy A

CIA Director Mike Pompeo faces the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, the first test of his nomination to be secretary of state, and with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) a "no" vote and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) out for cancer treatment, he is going to need Democratic support. In prepared remarks, Pompeo, a Republican former congressman from Kansas, emphasizes his plans to restore morale to and fully staff the State Department, touts his close relationship with President Trump, denies that

A teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who said he would arm himself after a gunman killed 17 students and teachers there in February apparently left his firearm in a public bathroom Sunday, the Miami Herald reports. By the time the teacher, Sean Simpson, realized he had forgotten his weapon in the stall at the Deerfield Beach Pier, a "drunk homeless man" had picked it up and fired it at a wall.
Simpson was arrested and charged with failing to safely store a firearm, which is a secon

Facebook doesn't seem any closer to data privacy regulation, much less getting broken up, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg's two-day visit to Capitol Hill than before he came. That's why Facebook stock rose so sharply during Zuckerberg's testimony to the Senate and House. Investors saw the same thing everyone did: A smart, if slightly robotic, corporate chieftain easily answering or swatting away questions from tech-illiterate politicians. If Congress has only a tenuous grasp of how the social media p

1. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced a second day of questioning on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, fielding tougher questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee than he did Tuesday from members of the Senate. For five hours, both Democrats and Republicans grilled him on Facebook's privacy policies, often cutting him off and pressing him to answer "yes" or "no." He repeated his apologies for the accessing of personal information of 87 million users by data-mining firm Cambridge

The formal announcement of Paul Ryan's retirement from the House speakership is as good a time as any to take stock of his achievements, such as they are.
Context matters here. It is fair to say that pitted against his two immediate Republican predecessors in the lower chamber, Ryan comes off slightly better than the pedophile wrestling coach and slightly worse than the weepy chain smoker now serving on the advisory board of a marijuana corporation. Unlike Denny Hastert, Ryan never torpedoed th

Deregulation under President Trump is going so well, he's asking Congress for an extension.
Trump declared he's cutting "record numbers" of regulations in a speech on tax cuts Thursday — even more than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in his 16 years in office, apparently. So why shouldn't he stick around just as long as FDR did?
That's what the president jokingly asked during remarks at the White House, before quickly backtracking. The last time Trump made a joke about breaking the pr...

Mike Pompeo, the CIA director President Trump has nominated to be his next secretary of state, has an extensive anti-gay reputation. In Pompeo's confirmation hearing Thursday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wasn't letting that fact slide.
After questioning Pompeo's view of Muslim-Americans, Booker brought up the fact that Pompeo once called gay sex "a perversion," forcefully questioning the nominee about whether he is still opposed to same-sex marriage.
Pompeo told Booker that his thoughts haven't c

Life comes at you fast in the Trump administration. A day after warning Syria, Russia, and the world that missiles "will be coming," President Trump clarified Thursday that he didn't say when. "Could be very soon or not so soon at all!" And this was only a week after the president said he wanted to pull U.S. troops out of Syria completely.
Amidst all this chaos, however, one thing remains a constant: Despite electing an "America First" president who has at least episodically expressed skepticis

On occasion, President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen would tape conversations he had with associates, and allies of Trump are concerned those digital files may have been seized by FBI agents during the raid of Cohen's home, office, and hotel room on Monday, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
Cohen, who used to work at the Trump Organization but had no formal role with the Trump campaign, was known for secretly recording people in order to have leverage, one

We've been told many times that "President Trump thrives on chaos." He likes things unpredictable, freewheeling, fast and loose. You never know what will happen, it's a crazy ride, but in the end everybody gets rich.
Except there's one person who doesn't want people to believe it. "So much Fake News about what is going on in the White House," the president tweeted at 6:38 a.m. Wednesday morning. "Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair trade with China, the coming North Korea

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) may well be retiring to spend more time with his family. "Everybody's going to write the timing is just because Republicans are going to lose — and that's true," GOP mega-donor Dan Eberhart told New York on Wednesday. "But he really just wanted to go home." Like other Republican strategists, donors, and lawmakers, Eberhart argues Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already a fait accompli. "I mean, I think the House is gone," he said. GOP donors, he told USA Today, are "g...

The Republican Party is in bad shape. Less than 18 months after sweeping to power under President Trump, the GOP's party is mostly over. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan is headed for the exits, joining dozens of his Republican colleagues.
Legislatively, yes, Republicans got their tax cut. But otherwise, even before he announced his resignation, Ryan's agenda had largely been shelved. The right has made gains in the judiciary, but Planned Parenthood is still funded, and Mexico isn't building us a w